Biomedical subjects

Glen E Bodner

Publications and source records attributed to Glen E Bodner.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Repetition proportion biases masked priming of lexical decisions.

Although subjects have little or no awareness of masked primes, Bodner and Masson (2001) found that priming of lexical decisions is often enhanced when masked repetition primes occur on a high proportion of trials. We used baseline prime conditions to specify the locus of this repetition proportion (RP) effect. In Experiments 1A and 1B, a .8-RP group showed more priming than did a .2-RP group, and this RP effect was due to both (1) increased facilitation from repetition primes and (2) increased interference from unrelated primes. In Experiment 2, we used the baseline condition to show that subjects are sensitive to RP rather than to the proportion of unrelated primes. Direct comparisons of a given prime condition (repetition, unrelated) across RP conditions were more stable than were comparisons relative to the baseline condition. The increased costs and benefits of repetition priming when RP is higher implicate a context-sensitive mechanism that constrains accounts of masked priming.

Attention↗

PubMed2005

Can test list context manipulations improve recognition accuracy in the DRM paradigm?

Only test-based manipulations can be used to help people distinguish accurate from false memories once events have been encoded. In two experiments we examined how the type of studied words (weak vs strong associates, or less vs more memorable associates) and nonstudied lure words (related vs unrelated lures) on the test list affect recognition accuracy in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. False recognition of critical lures decreased substantially in the related-lure context, but so did correct recognition of studied words. False recognition was little affected by the studied-word manipulations. In general, participants claimed to recognise critical lures as often as weak associates or less memorable studied words but less often than either strong associates or more memorable studied words. The test-list context affected how participants classified their recognition experiences but it did not systematically change their overall memory accuracy.

Communication↗

PubMed2005

Masked priming of number judgments depends on prime validity and task.

The influence of brief masked primes (42 or 50 msec) on number target judgments is shown to be highly sensitive to the list-wide validity of the primes for performing a particular target task. Odd/even judgments were facilitated on parity-valid trials (e.g., 1-7) relative to parity-invalid trials (e.g., 6-7), especially when .8 rather than .2 of the trials were parity valid. The opposite pattern was observed with magnitude judgments relative to 5: Responses were facilitated on magnitude- valid trials (e.g., 6-7) relative to magnitude-invalid trials (e.g., 1-7), especially when .8 of the trials were magnitude valid. These results are consistent with Bodner and Masson's (2001) claim that a processing episode constructed during a masked prime event is more likely to be recruited when there is a high probability that it will facilitate responding to the target.

Humans↗

PubMed2004

Beyond binary judgments: prime validity modulates masked repetition priming in the naming task.

Bodner and Masson (2001) reported that masked repetition priming of lexical decisions is often greater when the repetition primes appear on a high, rather than a low, proportion of trials. They suggested that processing episodes are constructed for masked primes and that recruitment of those episodes is affected by the probability that the prime will be useful for processing the target. If context-sensitive recruitment of primes is a general mechanism, a similar effect should also occur in a nonbinary response task. In accord with this hypothesis, using the naming task and a 45-msec prime duration, we show that masked repetition priming effects for uppercase words, case-alternated words, and pseudohomophones were greater when .8 rather than .2 of the trials involved repetition (vs. unrelated) primes. Prime validity effects are consistent with a memory recruitment view of priming but may be difficult to explain using activation-based mechanisms.

Attention↗

PubMed2003

Beyond spreading activation: an influence of relatedness proportion on masked semantic priming.

Semantic priming in the lexical decision task has been shown to increase when the proportion of related-prime trials is increased. This finding typically is taken as evidence for a conscious, strategic use of primes. Three experiments are reported in which masked semantic primes displayed for only 45 msec were tested in high- versus low-relatedness proportion conditions. Relatedness proportion was increased either by using a high proportion of semantically related primes or a large set of repetition-primed filler trials. Semantic priming was consistently enhanced relative to a low-relatedness proportion condition. These relatedness proportion effects were not due to conscious, strategic use of primes: Exclusion of prime-aware subjects did not attenuate the effects, and better performance in a prime classification task was not associated with larger semantic priming effects. These results are interpreted within a retrospective account of semantic priming in which recruitment of a prime event is modulated by prime validity.

Awareness↗